In the semiconductor industry, workpieces such as semiconductor wafers or substrates are often robotically transferred between process steps by workpiece handling systems. Ion implantation systems often utilize a workpiece handling system for transferring workpieces between an atmospheric workpiece carrier and a vacuum process chamber associated with an ion implanter. A conventional workpiece handling system comprises a robot having a gripper coupled thereto, wherein the gripper is configured to selectively grasp an edge of the workpiece.
In a typical ion implantation system, for example, workpiece handling is conventionally fixed for a particular workpiece size, wherein a size of an ion beam impinging on the workpiece accommodates the size of the workpiece. For example, when implanting ions into a 200 mm diameter wafer, a 200 mm wide ion beam is often utilized for implantation. However, if it is desired to implant ions into a 150 mm diameter wafer, various components of the workpiece handling systems and ion implantation system are conventionally modified in order to accommodate the differently-sized workpiece. For example, grippers and electrostatic chucks are typically designed for implanting ions into a single workpiece size. When a workpiece size changes, however, grippers, electrostatic chucks, and/or entire robotic handling components are also conventionally changed.
Thus, conventional ion implantation systems utilize predetermined processing equipment sizes based on the size of the workpiece being implanted, as well as the size of the ion beam impinging thereon. When a differently-sized workpiece is implanted, or a differently-sized ion beam is utilized for the implantation, various changes to the workpiece handling equipment are also made, thus increasing costs and incurring losses to productivity.